Out of Control
by Super Puppy
Summary: When the dragons in Berk suddenly begin misbehaving, many villagers attribute it to their nature and want them out, and talk of another war begins. Hiccup is determined to prove that it's not the dragons' fault, and sets out to find the problem. PostMovie


**Well, I saw this movie last weekend and absolutely loved it! I knew as soon as I saw it that I'd just have to write something for it, and I've finally come up with what I hope is a decent story.**

**Without further ado, here's part one!**

"Okay everyone, today we're going to do some practice races!" Hiccup announced to the crowd of wide-eyed children in front of him. "Mount your dragons, just like we practiced!"

Things in Bert had really picked up since the end of the war against the dragons. Now that the creatures had become an integral part of life in the village, Hiccup and some of the other more dragon-friendly Vikings had taken to teaching the villagers, both young and old, how to properly associate with them.

On top of that, new recreational activities had sprung up with the addition of dragons, such as variations on capture the flag, acrobatic contests, and – most popular of all – racing. Which happened to be what Hiccup's class of young Vikings was working on that day.

"Good, good." Hiccup mused, circling the class slowly onboard Toothless. "Watch your legs, there." He cautioned one child.

"Hey Hic, how's your class of losers doing?" Came a jeer from below. Hiccup rolled his eyes and called back down to Snotlout: "Better than yours!"

The bully laughed and gave a halfhearted wave to the group in the sky before continuing on his way.

Hiccup grinned. Since the battle with the giant dragon, he seemed to have earned a little more respect from the other Vikings his age. Though they never stopped harassing him, it was now done with a friendly affection rather than a cold rudeness.

"All right, you guys know the drill. Once around the island and I'll time you. The winner's dragon gets a special treat. Ready… set… go!" Hiccup announced, giving his stick-like arm a wave on the word "go" to indicate the start of the race to the dragons. They all shot off like rockets, gliding low to the ground and close to the inside of the island for maximum speed. He panicked for a moment when he saw one of the students struggling and prepared to go after her, but another villager helped her fix her position and get back into the race. He sighed and sat back on Toothless, relaxing and continuing to keep count in his head.

"Whoo! Who's the best?" A cry of victory shook Hiccup from his relaxed state. He looked up to see Alrik, who was regularly the fastest student in the class, cheering as he sped past the starting line (marked by Toothless' tail) happily.

Hiccup grinned at the young champion. "Way to go Alrik. Two minutes thirteen seconds. A new record for you!"

Hiccup reached into his vest pocket for the fish he'd promised the winning dragon. "Here ya go, boy." He said affectionately, tossing the fish to the tired beast as the other students tiredly passed the line.

Hiccup counted out loud to each of them as they passed, giving their time. "two twenty-six, two thirty-one, two thirty-four, two forty, two forty-four, three ten, and three twelve. Great work everyone, you're all speeding up!" He gave an extra wink to Dalla, the girl who'd nearly fallen off her dragon and ended up in last place. She was looking a bit sad.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

"I'm not very good at this, am I?" Dalla asked forlornly, rubbing the back of her head.

"Don't get discouraged, it just takes practice. Besides, not everyone's good at everything. You just have to find what you're best at."

She looked a little better. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

As Hiccup turned to announce the next lesson, he saw one of the boys had his hand raised.

"Yes?" He nodded in the boy's direction.

"Um… I was wondering… you always have us do racing drills and stuff, but we've never really seen how it's done by someone experienced. Could you show us how you'd race around the island?"

Hiccup's remaining foot twitched excitedly in the stirrup on Toothless' side. He would, in fact, love a chance to show off for his class. Hiccup's specialty was racing, and he was still the only person on the island who could make it all the way around in under a minute (his standing record was fifty-six seconds.)

"Well, if you insist." He conceded, grinning. "Who wants to time me?"

"I'll do it!" Dalla volunteered eagerly.

"All right then, Dalla, I'm counting on you to give me an accurate timing, okay?"

"Mm-hm!" She nodded cheerfully.

"Ready Toothless?" He asked his companion. Toothless gave him a look that said,_ Please, human, I was born ready_.

Hiccup chuckled.

"Three… two… one… go!" Dalla shouted, imitating Hiccup's arm wave at the start.

Toothless shot forward with such speed that it took the students a moment to find the black blur along the coastline after the race began.

The young boy who had asked for the initiation of the race looked eagerly down at his twin older siblings, who looked back and gave him a thumbs up before turning back to their work.

You see, while much of the island had been perfecting the art of riding dragons, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had been perfecting the art of knocking Hiccup off his dragon. And they'd gotten quite good at it, much to Hiccup's annoyance.

They aimed their tiny cannon-like device at the spot where they knew Hiccup would be in the amount of seconds it would take to fire the weapon. Well, it barely qualified as a weapon, really. Since the end of the dragon war, most of the large weaponry had been disassembled and the materials used to make equipment for the care of dragons instead. However, a few small-scale weapon types were still common among Vikings for hunting and fishing, or in this case, knocking riders off their dragons for entertainment purposes. The weapon of choice for the twins was a small machine that was a cross between a catapult and a cannon, not unlike the one Hiccup had been using when he first hit Toothless. However, this launched smaller, less-harmful objects that could only kill something small like a rabbit, and would do minimal damage to humans while still having enough force to knock them over. Perfect.

Ruffnut's hands gripped the lever excitedly, her eyes tracking the black blur carefully.

"Don't screw it up." Tuffnut hissed.

"I won't, now shut up." Ruffnut hissed back.

"Almost... almost… NOW!" Tuffnut cried just as Ruffnut pulled the trigger.

Their view down low was obstructed by buildings, but they heard the satisfying "oof" and _splash_ that told them they'd hit their mark.

Back in the air, the entire class was laughing hysterically as their teacher floundered in the water shouting for Toothless to get back there. The dragon smoothly turned around and scooped Hiccup out of the water. He looked at the laughing class.

"Hey, what's a couple of broken ribs if you all get a good laugh out of it." He grumbled sarcastically.

Hiccup managed to slide his feet back in the stirrups and click Toothless back into the proper position just before he crashed. They looped back around and crossed the makeshift finish line, Toothless laughing and Hiccup sputtering.

"Uh… well, you still made one minute twenty seconds." Dalla said meekly.

Hiccup shook the water out of his hair and smiled tiredly at Dalla. "Thanks. I guess it could've been worse, huh. Now if you'll excuse me for a second…" He guided Toothless down to the nook where Ruffnut and Tuffnut had set themselves up.

"Hiya, Hiccup." Tuffnut said cheerfully.

"You're looking wet. Decide to take a swim?" Ruffnut asked wryly.

"Can you guys not do that anymore?" Hiccup asked, crossing his arms.

"Nope!" They answered in unison.

Hiccup heard commotion coming from the children he was teaching and sighed. "This conversation isn't over." He turned and flew back to the class.

"Hey! What's going on up here?" As he approached closer, he noticed a few of the students were struggling to keep their dragons in control.

"Woah, calm down there!" Hiccup urged the feisty critters. "Toothless, can you tell them to – Toothless?" He looked into his dragon's eyes and saw that they'd narrowed to nearly slits. "What's wrong, boy?" He asked cautiously.

Without warning, Toothless let out a roar and flipped over, knocking Hiccup with his tail and throwing him to the ground with a _thud_.

"Mmph!" Hiccup groaned as he pulled himself to a sitting position. "What is this, official 'Annoy Hiccup Day?' He stood up slowly and looked around the island for a moment, his horror growing. All the villagers were struggling with their dragons, who had all for some reason grown angry and violent.

_What happened?_


End file.
